Re: structured documents [draft-hopmann-collection-props-00.txt]

I will try to summarize my present uncertainty about the webdav model.

A simplistic view of entities in a net is that each "thing" can be "named" and
"described" as well as it can "name" and "describe" other things. Restated,
for each node, there are links in and out and the there are attributes about
and attributes of. Nothing new here.

As far as I've been able to understand webdav, it recognizes "links in",
"links out", and "attributes about". These things are sufficient to describe
files and directories. They are sufficient for structured documents only if
"attributes of" are solely the responsibility of the application.

In other words, my sense is that the properties supported for collections are
strictly "attributes about" and that, in order to provide a standardized
interface for structured documents, one would need, in addition, a standard
interface to the means to identify and manipulate "attributes <em>of</em>" the document.

Lisa Lippert (Dusseault) (Exchange) wrote:
> 
> Our intent was that a structured document is treated by the server just like
> any other collection (it is a collection).  However, the client can (if in
> "read" or "browse" mode) display a structured document as a document and
> allow the user to read the document without being aware of all the pieces of
> the structured document.
> 

I'm not sure I believe this. It presumes that the only structure involves
relations to other resources and that any other information about the resource
is "unstructured".

?

Received on Tuesday, 12 January 1999 14:56:45 UTC